The present invention relates to the art of securing an article of clothing to an animal. It finds particular application in conjunction with securing a hat to the head of a dog, and will be described with particular reference thereto. However, it should be appreciated that the present invention may also find application in conjunction with other methods and devices for securing protective and fanciful articles of clothing to dogs and other animals.
It is known that dog owners occasionally clothe their pets with various articles. It is desirable for an article to remain secured to the animal regardless of the animal's activities (e.g., running, jumping, rolling-over, laying down, sitting, etc.). It is also necessary that the method of attaching the hat to the animal's head be quick, easy and economical to manufacture. With certain articles, security is not an issue. For instance, a dog sweater may include a central portion, which secures around the dog's body, and/or one or more leg openings for receiving the dog's legs therein. In addition, a bandana may be secured around a dog's neck by simply tying the ends of the bandana together. However, securing a hat to a dog's head has, heretofore, not been easily accomplished.
With any method of securing an article to an animal, an important issue is the comfort of the animal. In particular, most dogs will not tolerate a hat secured to their head if the securing means interferes with the dog's movement or interferes with any part of the dog's body, such as the dog's ears.
Accordingly, it has been considered desirable to develop a new and improved article and method for securing the article to an animal, which meets all of the above-mentioned needs and overcomes the foregoing difficulties while providing better and more advantageous results.
The method and apparatus for securing an article of clothing to an animal (U.S. Pat. No. 5,893,173) accomplishes many of these goals. However, several shortcomings are also noted:                1. Fitting the hat to the head of an animal first requires adjusting strap 32 and loop 38. This loop 38 must be made longer or shorter by pulling the strap 32 through apertures 24b or 24c as explained in Column 3, lines 36 and 37. This creates an excess or shortage in strap 32 which must then be threaded through ring 30 and finally through apertures 24a and 24d. This process is time consuming and potentially frustrating.        2. While the adjustment process is only necessary once for a particular dog, it must be performed each time the hat is placed on a different dog, even if their heads appear to be fairly similar in size.        3. The harness arrangement is confusing. Should strap 32 be pulled from the hat entirely, reattaching the strap would require a pet owner to follow elaborate instructions.        4. This method is expensive to manufacture. It requires the inner band 12 to be attached to the outer shell 10. It requires apertures 24a, 24b, 24c, and 24d to be inserted in band 12. A ring 30 is required. Finally, strap 32 must be threaded through aperture 24a, ring 30, apertures 24b and 24c, again through ring 30 and finally through aperture 24d. The added components and assembly render this method prohibitively expensive to manufacture.        